The Luminaries

By: Eleanor Catton

Narrated by: Mark Meadows

Longlisted – Baileys Women’s Prize 2014

Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2013

Canadian Governor General's Literary Award, 2013.

It is 1866 and Walter Moody has come to make his fortune upon the New Zealand goldfields. On arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men, who have met in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. A wealthy man has vanished, a whore has tried to end her life, and an enormous fortune has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into the mystery: a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely patterned as the night sky.

The Luminaries is an extraordinary piece of fiction. Written in pitch-perfect historical register, richly evoking a mid-19th-century world of shipping and banking and goldrush boom and bust, it is also a ghost story, and a gripping mystery. It is a thrilling achievement for someone still in her mid-20s, and will confirm for critics and listeners that Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international writing firmament.

Eleanor Catton was born in 1985 in Canada and raised in New Zealand. She completed an MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University in 2007 and won the Adam Prize in Creative Writing for The Rehearsal. She was the recipient of the 2008 Glenn Schaeffer Fellowship to study for a year at the prestigious Iowa Writers' Workshop in the US and went on to hold a position as Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing there, teaching Creative Writing and Popular Culture. Eleanor won a 2010 New Generation Award. She now lives in Wellington, New Zealand.

©2013 Eleanor Catton (P)2013 Audible Ltd

Critic reviews

"The Luminaries is an impressive novel, captivating, intense and full of surprises." (Times Literary Supplement)

"The Luminaries is a breathtakingly ambitious 800-page mystery with a plot as complex and a cast as motley as any 19th-century doorstopper. That Catton's absorbing, hugely elaborate novel is at its heart so simple is a great part of its charm. Catton's playful and increasingly virtuosic denouement arrives at a conclusion that is as beautiful as it is triumphant." (Daily Mail)

"It is awesomely - even bewilderingly - intricate. There's an immaculate finish to Catton's prose, which is no mean feat in a novel that lives or dies by its handling of period dialogue. It's more than 800 pages long but the reward for your stamina is a double-dealing world of skullduggery traced in rare complexity. Those Booker judges will have wrists of steel if it makes the shortlist, as it fully deserves." (Evening Standard)

fantastic novel, perfect narration. 5 STARS!

I LOOOVVVEEED THIS BOOK!!!

how did this novel only take 2 years to write? and how was eleanor catton only 27 years old when it was published??? i feel like the amount of detail about astrology and historical realism in this book would have...should have...taken 10 years to research and work out. never mind the way the the waning of the chapters, following the moon cycles grow progressively longer and then extremely short. the chapter introductions,...growing progressively longer and longer and longer. the astrological star titles given to each character, and astrological house given to each location, all switching prominence and even switching moods as their charts change. the layers of discovery...stories within stories...how each chapter breaks the belief i had in different character's motives and actions.

even WITHOUT the structural complexity of this novel, it's a winner in my eyes. even WITH the structural complexity, it seemed like an easy read, and it didn't seem as long as it is. and i must admit...i think some of the structural complexity was lost to me!!!

the novel offers up theatrical settings with secrets and sex and drugs and mystery. lively characters, even without much depth, tromp in and out of the chapters....tangling a web that you think is going to be unraveled. but keeps getting even more twisted.

so many people have said this book is a 'difficult' read...but i did not find even one page of it difficult. this really is a book that is pure joy to read. PURE JOY.

i am so excited to revisit this novel again and again throughout the rest of my life...to me, it's one of those books i will never ever forget and never ever just leave on the shelf.

Excellent reading

Fantastic story and really, really excellent narration. So easy to follow an recognise character as they all had their own voice.

Art vs. Artifice

I listened to the whole thing. And at no time did I ever even BEGIN to invest my emotions with ANY character. This is an extremely clever book, amazingly well read, but it lacks heart. In terms of "artifice" I give it top marks. In terms of "art" (you know, a thing that grabs you, a thing that you become emotionally invested in) I give it low marks. I remember slogging through the 30 hours of this book during my many long walks earlier this year. I am on to other books now but I am still reminded of passages from "The Luminaries" when I walk by a certain landmark. These are not happy memories. The book was a chore. A very clever chore.

A masterpiece!

Would you listen to The Luminaries again? Why?

Yes, I loved the author's use of words and style.

What did you like best about this story?

The well-rounded characters and humor, along with the mystery story and unexpected twists.

Have you listened to any of Mark Meadows’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I will again --he is amazing; his use of accents and tone are awe-inspiring.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Too many to mention.

Any additional comments?

If you love stories with interesting characters and slow-developing but well reasoned plots read this!

Great story

A great story read by a fantastic narrator. I loved the complexity and the way that the character development was woven into the unravelling thread of the mystery.
The build up was a little slow to start and the denouement was somewhat unnecessary since the author did such a great job of telling the story and developing the characters that a discerning reader should have already known all that was revealed in the denouement.

Loved the book and the narration

i cannot imagine a better narrator for this beautiful, intricate jewel of a book.

A great read, but falls apart at the end

The Luminaries is a great read for anyone who enjoys 19th-century British novels. Catton's prose is of a decidedly Victorian bent, beautiful descriptions spilling out as a Wilkie Collins-type plot unfolds. Now, I read the Woman in White recently and ended up angry at its cheap coincidences, but The Luminaries doesn't have any of those. For most of the book it's very funny and a real page turner, even with its formal prose style. There's also a fascinating portrayal of early New Zealand society, which indeed was the author's aim.

What it does have is a weird structure in which little pieces of the whole plot drip out for 800pp., followed by a rush to the finish that doesn't even answer all the reader's questions. Upon finishing I went online and was both relieved and annoyed to find that the unexplained pieces of the plot are just that. There's also an astrological theme throughout that I confess I couldn't follow (even looking at the charts at the head of each section in the print book, which the audiobook of course omits).

Mark Meadows may be the very best narrator I've ever listened to, as he switches effortlessly through a variety of British, Scottish and Irish accents.

Wonderful Narration

Mark Meadows is a fantastic narrator! His differing voices for each character were remarkable and made for a splendid listen.

Loved the story

The time jumps confused at first, the ending is a bit abrupt. But I like it.

Unsatisfying Ending

This is a story that starts in the middle and ends at the beginning, which is an interesting approach but I found unsatisfying. Because I listened to it, I missed all the technical details and couldn't follow the astrological part at all.

The beginning was difficult in audio - it was hard to keep track of so many characters, especially given the expansive style of speech of the time. Eventually it was easy to listen to and ultimately I didn't mind the length. I liked the setting - both in place and time - and the story was interesting. But in 30 hours I expected to be more engaged with the people and I wanted to care more about them. So ultimately the story has interesting architecture, but for me lacks heart.